


Fifty Two

by xuhei



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: :(, Multi, Soulmate AU, so i hope you like it, this one is kinda sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 18:27:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11423622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xuhei/pseuds/xuhei
Summary: “It was…” you choke a sob through your sentence and Sehun can feel the burning on his knees where you’re digging into broken glass before him. He wants to stop you but he can’t even talk to you right now – unless he wants to lose his final moments with you. “You were…this whole time? Sehunie, please. You can’t leave me. No, Sehun. No, you can’t.”





	Fifty Two

**Author's Note:**

> I got the idea off a Pinterest writing prompt and ran with it. don't you already know I don't do basic? anyway, I hope you like it. if not then I guess I suck

Sehun was always weary of the 9 o'clock sunlight - it had never brought him good things. It started when he was only a boy – aged seven he was when he watched his best friend also aged seven get hit by a car in front of him. That was at 9:04 AM on a Saturday morning in early June 2000, and every nightmare usually carried the pained shriek of Kim Jongin and the way that the older ladies run over to the lifeless body.

And it fascinated Sehun, because he’d never really experienced pain before that moment. Yes, he’d cut his fingers on countless sharp objects, but not a pain like the one of losing his best friend. His heart did truly shatter; wide eyes staring down at the pool of blood that glistened in the 9 o'clock sun.

However, he was distracted by the sudden screaming of another mother. Poor, little Sehun didn’t know what was happening. His parents lived across the street so he and Jongin always played in the park without parental guidance. It was Krystal’s parents – Krystal, the American girl who had perfect English, was laying on the floor like Kim Jongin but without the blood. An ajummah was taking care of Jongin but his crush Krystal was lifeless before her parents.

“That’s because they were soulmates,” Sehun’s eomma explains calmly. She had held her son’s shaking body for days and nights, and now that he was nine, his mother felt little Sehun could understand the laws of the land is more easily. “Krystal felt so much pain because she was Jongin’s soulmate. When your soulmate gets hurt, so do you.”

“But eomma. I hurt when Jonginie was hurt too,” Sehun says.

His eomma wonders if Sehun is a little too young for this kind of thing but remembers her son about his head and said a little prayer for his late best friend at his remembrance site. “Yes, Sehun-ah. That’s because you love to – but he wasn’t your soulmate. Soulmates’ love runs so deep that is not only emotional and mental pain you share, but also physical pain.”

“Do I have a soulmate, eomma?” Sehun questions, eyebrows furrowed and eyes wide.

He wonders what it will be like to have a soulmate for a while. For a moment he whines to his loving mother that he doesn’t want his soulmate to make him get hurt. Ever. He complains that it is unfair that his soulmate has the power to leave a scar on him when he wasn’t even involved in the accident.

It’s just past nine on a Wednesday morning, when Sehun has just turned nine that he’s woken up with a sharp pain over the back of his neck. He runs to his eomma and appa who inspect him for any cuts – they find one fresh mark that resembles a burn across the back of his neck like he said.

Sehun distinctly remembers his appa joking with his eomma that ‘at least we know he’s got a soulmate now’, but Sehunie was mad. The burn hurt him and it would never go away, even to this day he still has it over the back of his neck. He was mad because he was hurt by his soulmate for no reason. What kind of soulmate is that?

He’s mad for the next few weeks in fact, because Sehun even misses a story about a group of kids that escaped experimentation – one poor little one even had the back of their neck slashed in one guard’s fury.

But when he is 12 – a much more grown-up boy who understands the concept of love – Sehun finally regrets what he said in the past about his soulmate. The young boy has gone to visit Jonginie’s grave stone with his puppy Vivi but accidentally tripped and cut his knee (deeply, that is) on a rather sharp stone. His parents take him to the hospital but he’s in too much pain to even think about what’s going on around him. But then he remembers his soulmate must be feeling the same thing right now. Whoever they are, they’re in as much pain as he is and dear God he wants to cry.

It’s this winter’s morning, 9 AM on a school holiday Monday, that Sehunie starts to understand the concept of soulmates.

2319

Sehun is frozen. His actions mirror your own. He can’t move. There is something wrong.

“Sehun-ah!” Junmyeon is the first to shout. The stab wound in his arm is no problem when his favourite dongsaeng is hurt. “S-Sehun! Let me go or I'll—”

Junmyeon’s words are cut short because about a cup of thick red blood is choked from Sehun’s mouth. He tries to talk but the second he does a pain shoots through him.

Chanyeol is weeping gently, Jongdae is trying to help Chanyeol with his bleeding arm. Baekhyun is hyperventilating and Junmyeon is just trying to help. Luhan, the unscathed member of the friendship circle, is beside Sehun and shouting across the room to his closest friend who isn’t moving – to you.  

Sehun can feel blood in his throat but he doesn’t want to think about it. For those times he complained, he deserves this didn’t he? His priority, surprisingly, is you.

“I’m going to fucking kill you!” You shout. Sehun is watching closely as you point your hand towards the last remaining scientist. He is breathless but he picks up on your side steps in his direction.

“What? Are you worried he will die?” The ajusshi says, kissing his teeth. The man in his white coat takes one step forward but your sniper is quicker than he is – the stranger’s hand is blown off in one piece. Of course the doctor’s bodyguard springs into action but a fatal shot comes from the sniper again. “You bitch! Do you think hurting more people will save your soulmate? Huh? How did you even know that he was here!”

Sehun is wheezing now. His chest hurts but he knows he was shot in the stomach. He even feels a little light headed but that doesn’t change the fact that Sehun knows he has to fight. He can picture Krystal Jung’s face when they told her that she’d been in so much pain because Kim Jongin had died. He can’t do that to you. Not now that you know the truth.  

He hurts. His chest itches. He sees how your steps falter because he’s been shot. He hates himself because you’re in pain. He wants to avoid this at all costs.

“Sehunie,” you call. He just manages to open his eyes fully at the sound of your voice, they were heavy but not too heavy compared to the suffering of your tears. “Please. Please stay with me. Please.”

His tied hands are what’s keeping his body upright but he doesn’t dare utter that to you through his bloodied lips. He turns into your hand that caresses his cheek, trying to block out the pounding in his head.

“I’m so sorry,” you tell him, urgency in your voice as you dial the emergency number that Yixing had given you earlier – Sehun knew because Yixing gave Baekhyun the exact same one a while ago.

“D-Don’t…” Sehun can’t finish. He coughs more and blood spills onto floor in front of him. You tell him to shush but he shakes his head, finally letting a tear slide down the side of his face. “You didn’t know.”

Sehun imagines you still don’t want to know. Though Yixing is still not picking up, it wouldn’t matter if he did – your attention is on Sehun. One of your shaky hands reaches for his already ripped jeans, pushing back the material the very top of his thigh. He hates your slight gasp that follows what you can see on him. It’s worse than lying to you this whole time.

“It was…” you choke a sob through your sentence and Sehun can feel the burning on his knees where you’re digging into broken glass before him. He wants to stop you but he can’t even talk to you right now – unless he wants to lose his final moments with you. “You were…this whole time? Sehunie, please. You can’t leave me. No, Sehun. No, you can’t.”

He won’t – if he does leave you then he’ll never forgive himself for making you feel eternal pain. At least he has a soulmate; he wishes that he didn’t at this moment because things would be easier if no one feels pain when he dies. He can’t let someone he loves feel that pain.

“Baekhyun!” Chanyeol screams, disturbing everyone. It makes Sehunie a little jealous. You’re turned to a collapsed Baekhyun who Junmyeon is trying to shake awake. Sehun knows he’s fine because Chanyeol is still fine – you wouldn’t know that though.

“Yixing—! Yah, come now!” Luhan says in rushed syllables. The world is slowing down around Sehun. He didn’t know so many people had their hands tied. “Sehun has been shot! He’s losing blood a-and the others have minor wounds but Baekhyun is unconscious. Xing, please be quick. I don’t think he’ll last for long.”

Your face falls completely and there’s a ghost white look that’s  spread over your face. Sehun remembers the only other time you’ve been this shade. For a moment he considers fighting Luhan for saying such a thing, but he realises something.

Luhan could be right.

“All of those times you talked about your soulmate…” Sehun can see two of you and he hates it. He wants to focus on you and the only you that really exists to him. Not the fictional you that lived in his dream world, jumping from star to star and taking the world in your stride. “…You were talking about me?”

Sehun has the strength to nod. He’s going to go into shock soon. His muscles are stiff and he is trying to see your beauty one last time. He’s not sure if he’ll last long either. He wants to be strong for you but that might be hard – the pain is unbearable. Won’t you forgive him? You must forgive him. He’s been a bad soulmate. But, he’s sure of one thing and he must tell you in case he doesn’t get another chance. “I-I love you.”

0000

A small but still as whitty Sehun met Baekhyun when the boy just started a new school aged 13. Sehun seemed very confident in himself until he realised at lunch that he had no one to sit with, and he ended up going to the table of people he’d learnt to call friends very soon.

Baekhyun and Sehun naturally got on, but after a week of the two being practically inseparable, a tall boy with the softest hair told the youngest to back off. This boy was Park Chanyeol – though he and Sehun didn’t get off to the greatest start, they realised that they actually had quite a lot in common. Like Harry Potter, for example.

But it was Kim Jongdae who originally asked Sehun why he had no friends. The eldest in the group at the time – Kim Minseok – shoved at Jongdae’s chest and told him to shut up. However, Sehun found himself very clam in telling Jongdae as well as the rest of his hyungs the truth. “Well… my old best friend was hit by a car.”

“It’s okay Sehunie!” his eldest hyung assures him. Minseok was the kindest soul and Baekhyun, though equally kind, would never have such a pure heart as Minseok. “You have us! Forever, I promise you. Fighting!”

And poor Sehun, he was such a trusting boy. He would listen to everything word that came from his friends, twenty four seven. Which put him at a loss; though he was accepted as their friend the maknae would always fall to their teasing and pranks. They even sent him out into the woods one night and scared him silly – Sehun had to say he fell into a pond on the way back rather than straight up admitting to wetting himself.

He loved them like he was sure he would have loved Jongin if he was still alive. But they were never Jongin; Sehun was reminded of that every time that Chanyeol and Jongdae failed to shut up like Minseok always told them to. It wasn’t their faults though, bless  them, fifteen year old Chan and Dae had no idea why Sehunie moved schools in the first place. They might have been informed but they were two years older than Sehun so none of the teachers expected them to be so close.

“Ooh–! I know! Was there a bad demon that drove you out?” Jongdae asks. He pulls out one of Sehun’s earbuds to make sure that the maknae is listening. “Did someone die? It was have been – you wouldn’t have been so upset otherwise, would you?”

Sehun bites his tongue. He tries not to think of that morning; he blocked it out so that he could try and help his eomma. He takes a deep breath and tries to stay focused on his overdue maths homework. “We wanted a change of scenery.”

“Baekhyun said that bad things always happen around you, Sehun-ah. Are you sure you’re not cursed? We’re not going to die, are we?” Chanyeol questions.

“Die?” Sehun asks. His lip wobbles a little at the word itself. He feels like all eyes are on him but he knows deep down that no one cares for him that much. “W-Why would you die?”

Jongdae raises an eyebrow. “Because your dad died, didn’t he? Yeah! That’s why Baekhyun said we have to be nice to you.”

Truthfully, Sehun might have been sick if he opened his mouth.

The first image in his head was one of the view he took on November 14th, the early morning and late 2006. Sehun always knew his appa had drinking problems but the boy never pictured it to be this bad.  His appa laid on the floor in a pile of his own sick that was brought forth by countless shots tonight before.

At least you’ve got a soulmate. That made much more sense now. He knew his eomma was in emotional pain because of this but she never felt the pain of the burning oesophagus and a dry lungs his father did. He’d like to ask his father if he ever had a soulmate but he’d have to wait until heaven to actually ask his father.

Problem was, Sehun knew that he’d never put his soulmate through that kind of pain. He wanted to talk to his appa but his soulmate surely couldn’t forgive him if he left like that. Sehun must stay strong for his soulmate, he would hate himself put his soulmate through so much pain.

But, maybe, the fact that his appa fell in love with someone who wasn’t actually his soulmate made a drinking death as easy as opening a cap of half empty vodka.

“Jongdae,” a stern voice says. Sehun wants to know who has this voice – as well as control over Jongdae. “I think you have guitar with Juho-ssi today. And Park Chanyeol, do you not have detention today?”

The smaller boy looks about 17 but Sehun knows that boy talking is Do Kyungsoo. He talks to the older boys in the school and writes his own movies at lunch. Sehun always thought he might get scolded by Kyungsoo if they spoke, especially with the rumours flying round about the boy.

But Kyungsoo just offers to Sehun a small smile before walking out of the room, along with Jongdae and Chanyeol rushing away too. They’re his friends but Sehun knows that he should talk to Kyungsoo a little more. They are a little more like each other than Sehun might have first realised.

Sehun does find himself checking the back of Kyungsoo’s neck but is greatly disappointed to see nothing but smooth, tanned skin. Kyungsoo would be soulmate, he thinks. He rubs the scar on the back of his neck cautiously as he realises that he wants to find his soulmate as soon as possible.

2235

“Who is it?” The man to Sehun’s left, who is covered in a white lab coat and other science-y things, shouts. It’s a question for you, and Sehun’s heart pounds as you don’t dare look to Baekhyun. “Come on, tell me! You’ll save the five from injury if you just say who it is.”

You roll your eyes – a trait Sehun knows you’ve picked up from him. “Go fuck yourself.”

“Is it this one?” He asks. Your eyes go wide and Sehun tears his vision from you for a moment so that he can see what what has shook everyone.

“Don’t touch him,” you warn the ajusshi. Of course he doesn’t listen and brings his knife closer to Chanyeol’s arm. The grey haired boy is begging for his life but the ajusshi doesn’t listen.

“You don’t seem like you care a great deal for this one really,” that ajusshi states. He looks over to Chanyeol and sighs. “Shame. You two would have been a good match. You both like to run away from your problems.”

Sehun thinks that this man must be evil. He draws the deadly sharp knife across Chanyeol’s shoulder and leaves a thick red line of oozing blood. Sehun steals a glance at Baekhyun who looks nervous but obviously is questioning the sting on his shoulder. It’s not a deep cut but enough to leave a scar, one which you don’t get.

“So it’s not him,” he says. He laughs to himself mockingly before moving to Jongdae. “I’m not in the best of moods, subject 52. So you better start talking before I make these tests worse and worse.”

Sehun notices the way your face changes. He knows that you didn’t want any of this to happen – there had been a considerable amount of nights he had heard you cry in your sleep because of these men and women who knew you by your number and DNA. You were an escaped test subject that was paying the consequences for what happened in 2003.

The process repeats itself with Jongdae; a scar on his arm is created by an already bloodied knife and there is still no mark on you. You’re not nervous because it’s not Baekhyun but that doesn’t change anything. Jongdae shouldn’t be getting hurt because of this. Sehun knows deep down that ajusshi knows who your real soulmate is but is just getting a kick out of being able to hurt innocent people so easily.

“It’s not him either,” ajusshi states firmly. He moves to Baekhyun and subsequently the look on your face changes. Sehun looks away from you and straight to Baekhyun, another poor soul trapped in this illusion. “Come on, 52. You should be able to tell how great a danger your soulmate is in now. Or was that 99? I’m not sure. So many of you had extra gifts which you never even thanked us for. Is it this one?”

Sehun knows you’re about to leap forward but the ajusshi is quicker. He sends a straight slice down Baekhyun’s collarbone before you can even move. Sehun looks back to you, and you are frozen.

Stuttered nothings leave your lips as the wound Baekhyun has just received never shows up on your skin. He is shocked, too – why wouldn’t he be? As far as everyone knew the truth you were soulmates who stuck together through thick and thin. Baekhyun had a ring which Sehun knew he was planning to give you on New Year’s Eve when there was celebrations all around. It was settled that you and Baekhyun were soulmates, but there were two people who knew that wasn’t the case.

There is tear rolling down Baekhyun’s cheek, but the smaller boy is trying to remain strong despite the throbbing pain in his shoulder. Sehun knows that the secret in the group is out now. He hated the way you look so desperately confused as to why you didn’t get it too; the pain, the scar, the burning, that is.

“Baek—” you can’t finish your sentence due to the way your lips quiver in silence. Sehun and the others notice Junmyeon’s pained cry from the slice down his arm but the ajusshi just cackles to himself at the way you look at Baekhyun – so lost and fear ridden. “B-Baekhyun—!”

“I…I’m…” Baekhyun can’t get his arms to move or lips to speak. Sehun wants to comfort you – just because he’s not your real soulmate doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you.

Yet, when Sehun turns his head to the ajusshi and they meet eyes, the ill-minded stranger smirks and practically invites Sehun to know what’s in store for him later on. The man knows. He knows Sehun has been lying to you this whole time and he is going to use it against you. The worst thing? Sehun can’t even try to stop it.

You are shoved back down the second you try to run for Baekhyun. This ajusshi is strong but Sehun’s knows you’re smart. You have warned Kris or Tao that you were here. They would help, surely. Sehun also knew that they were two of the top shooters in their ranks in the military – they always brag about it to everybody so why not now? But he doesn’t know where they were, so he’s not even sure if a sniper could help at this time.

But realistically, it’s too late. You’re not going to be able to be saved by either of them because this building is in the middle of nowhere. Sehun looks so desperately at you but you are too busy watching Baekhyun to pay attention to anything else.

Of course you are – you love Baekhyun. Again, Sehun knows that just because someone isn’t your soulmate doesn’t mean you can’t love them. His eomma loved his appa so much. The only difference was that Sehun’s parents knew that they weren’t soulmates. It wasn’t like that, Sehun would not forget the way that they looked at each other.

He is too busy remembering. He misses the way you try to grab at the ajusshi and reach for his gun to pull from his hands and deter the future. He doesn’t hear Luhan scream his name – but he knows what’s coming. What Sehun watches with close detail is the contorted look on your face when you involuntarily feel the burn of a bullet in your abdomen.

He caused you pain. He hates himself for it.

0129

He’s walking to school with Baekhyun when he hears a high pitched scream. It’s one of a girl, he’s sure of that. Sehun takes one look at the seventeen year old Baekhyun and the two of them - being the great men that they are - both dash in the direction of the scream. They expect it to be an ajumma who’s met a pickpocket but instead they find two girls around their age, standing around someone laying on the floor.

One of them recognises Baekhyun. Sehun remembers the way she called his name with a voice filled with so much fear. She was stuttering something about the person on the floor. Drugs. Alcohol. Something like that. She was they found him like that and Baekhyun uses his wit and tells her and the friend to call the emergency services for help.

But eventually Baekhyun gets a look at who is laying on the floor, as does Sehun when he stops playing chicken and realises the person on the floor is not his appa. But he still feels sick when he sees the boy lying unconscious, probably already dead, on the pavement. He blanks out everything but Baekhyun’s shaking voice as he calls Junmyeon’s number. Chanyeol and Jongdae were right.

“H-Hyung… D-D-Do Kyungsoo… He’s…”

The two exact people don’t talk to him right up until Sehun’s memorial at school. Jongdae grabs Chanyeol’s arm and drags himself to speak with their sobbing dongsaeng who refused to sit with their group at lunch anymore. He was only 15 - what did he know? Chanyeol and Jongdae didn’t mean what they said about their curse.

It was a joke, that’s what Jongdae insists. He tried to hug Sehun but the youngest pushed him away and said not to talk to him. He was a strong minded boy who didn’t need half-arsed apologies from fake friends. Though he is sure that Chanyeol and Jongdae are somewhat remorseful, his stubborn attitude makes it impossible to try and forgive them.

Instead, Sehun leaves and the only one who chases him is Baekhyun. The pair end up heading for a cafe on the other side of town, purely because Baekhyun offers to pay (and sort out his two friends, but Baekhyun is never held to that because Chanyeol is generally so much bigger than Baekhyun that if they ever fought, Sehun fears Chanyeol may simply snap him in half).

Sehun is distracted on the walk there, though. He rubs his watery eyes when he spots someone running their way and chasing a cat that looks eager to escape. Of course Baekhyun is the first to pick the animal up and save an extra journey - this alone makes Sehun mad. He finds himself staring as they approach; he’s fascinated by their face and the way his entire body tingles when they approach.

Is this it? Is this what it feels like to meet your soulmate? Sehun is not sure by his 15 year old mind is in awe of the person before him. The way they stutter their thanks to Baekhyun.

Baekhyun tries to make conversation with them, too, obviously finding them attractive like Sehun. But they’re not interested and in the end they call their friend whose cat it actually was. Both Sehun and Baekhyun turned, but only one of them met the soulmate they had been searching for.

Sehun doesn’t think very much of it at first. Baekhyun is very consistent in talking about his newly met soulmate. Chanyeol even leaves the group chat they have because of it. Baekhyun tells Sehun that his soulmate has been texting him every day, and that he just knows that they are soulmates.

They have the same scar on their neck, Baekhyun says. He’s afraid to ask his soulmate about their other scar because it comes from the first time he tried shaving and that is “too awkward” to bring up on their conversation.

Meanwhile, Sehun tries to find his own soulmate still. He asks Junmyeon what it’s like to meet his soulmate, and his hyung says that there is no way of knowing. Junmyeon met his soulmate when he was sixteen but didn’t have the confidence to ask them out until a few months before because he had to be sure. But Junmyeon checked every single scar, and they were most definitely soulmates.

Sehun keeps looking. Even when he is 17 and the last of his friends are at university now, Sehun spends his weekends making friends in the park but to no avail. See, for Sehun, it wasn’t hard to spot a scar on his soulmate. When Sehun was younger, he had accidentally shaved off his eyebrow and cut his temple in the process. Not an obvious scar but you would notice it if you were looking.

At one point he does come close to wanting to give up, but Sehun keeps hearing about what Junmyeon and Baekhyun and now even Jongdae were doing with their (newly found) soulmates. Sehun knows that wants to do that with his soulmate, whoever they are.

He hopes that his soulmate will visit Jongin and Kyungsoo with him. He also hopes that he will treat his soulmate as well as Baekhyun treats his own soulmate. Sehun hears that the two do everything together - Sehun’s hyung ever walks them home from school and they’re planning to go to Jeju island together.

Sehun imagines that they are in love with each other. He wants that.

2147

“Subject fifty two,” the man from earlier in the white coat greets. He sends one of his men to pull you back from Baekhyun as you so furiously tried to set your boyfriend free. “It’s so nice to see you again. How is your neck?”

Sehun inadvertently knows what’s going on here. He’s heard about the scientists that want you as dead as the others in group. He wants to tell you that everything will be okay but truthfully Sehun doesn’t think it will be. The man is dangerous and the only backup you have is a call to Yixing to save someone’s life.

“You only want me, so why are they all here?” You ask.

“Well that’s going to be answered with another question, 52,” the ajusshi states calmly. He takes a step forward so that he standing between Junmyeon and Baekhyun allowing Sehun to see his face more clearly.  Sehun definitely recognises this man. “How did you know they were here 52?”

Sehun looks back and notices how tight your fists are clenched. His heart is beating so fast right now that he’s worried he’ll cause you to have a heart attack, too. He knows he has to keep calm so you can help. “You’re not so good at locking doors, so how do you think I got in? The same way we all got out before.”

“Now is not the time for you to be getting angry with me,” the man answers with utter detest. He scoffs, pulling the gun out from his pocket and resting it against the side of Junmyeon’s head. “No I don’t think that this one is your soulmate but I won’t hesitate to kill him. Remember, 52, if you and your soulmate just listen to me and hand yourselves over then you save the lives of the five others. Are you honestly that selfish that you would hurt five other people to protect yourself?”

Sehun glances at Baekhyun. The older boy has his eyes shut tight as he faces down at the ground and lets his lips quiver every few seconds. Baekhyun was scared for no reason, and this made Chanyeol just as bad. Jongdae between them seemed more worried about the fact Junmyeon had a gun pressed to his head.

“He is not guilty of anything! You don’t need him, you need me,” you answer. Sehun takes a deep breath as he hears shuffling around the room again.

Should he turn himself in? That would save everybody else here. He is worried you might think he is lying, but he’s your best friend and his Baekhyun’s best friend too. He could try to save everything for you. But, his mind is filled with the stories you’ve told him about this place – he can’t turn himself in. “F-Fine—! I’m the soulmate!”

Everyone, even Baekhyun, looks over to Luhan. His hands are shaking uncontrollably behind his back, but he straightens himself out, looks over at you and takes a deep breath. Even though everyone knows he’s lying no one dares to say anything because they’re all too scared for their lives.

“You?” The ajusshi asks. His hard shoes click against the cold floor, broken glass and rubble crunching beneath every step. He stops in front of Luhan and pulls up the boys chin so that he can see his face. All the follows is a short, tormenting cackle. “Lu Han? 53? You think lying to me is a good thing? I know who your soulmate is and they are not 52. Why would I make a botched experiment 52’s soulmate?”

Sehun tries to make sense of the numbers that are being used. You’re 52, he knows that now.

Luhan is 53 – that could be why you two were so close. But a ‘botched experiment’? Sehun didn’t follow. He’s probably been told by you something that could qualify as an answer but his brain isn’t working correctly right now.

“You know who my soulmate is so why didn’t you just take him?” you asked. Sehun looks to you with questioning eyes, but when he meets your gaze all he receives is a blank stare. You are thinking, Sehun knows your thinking face.

“Honestly? There is no fun in that,” ajusshi tells you. He lets go of Luhan’s chin and walks back to standing behind the six boys. “Plus, 52. I think everyone here might have a few secrets they need to share. Why won’t you give me your soulmate? Don’t you know who he is?”

Sehun gulps rather loudly and turns away from you. He can picture the way you’re looking at Baekhyun and it leaves him heartbroken. You’re not staying quiet to protect him, you’re doing it to protect Baekhyun. “He doesn’t belong to you I don’t need to give you anything.”

“Do I not even get a thank you for saving your life all those years ago?” He asks, “I mean, you’re soulmate should really be thanking me. The only reason you’re still here with him is because of me. You’re meant to be dead but I saved your life with my work. So think of him as a thank you present to me, a life for a life.”

You only roll your eyes. “You saved my life? No, you didn’t. The team at the hospital did and you took me away from them for your own pleasure! I don’t need to thank you for anything apart from teaching me about all the dick heads I’ll meet in this world!”

“What, you think your parents would have paid for your follow-up surgeries and what not? Here is a though. They didn’t care about you. None of your parents did. 10, 52, 53, 79, 95. All your parents gave you to me because they didn’t want you. Even 99. I gave you a life, and now you need to return my favour.”

0258

Sehun enrols in university when he’s older, and he’d pondered about quitting before he even started. Why? Because he realises he actually hates literature and he only took the course because he spends his free time reading different books about fantasies that distracted him from real life. He actually hates his boring life at this time so stories that can distract him really make his life worth living.

But it’s that very first day at University, after he told his eomma to leave him alone now, that he thinks maybe starting won’t be so bad. And why? Because Sehun sees you standing inside his hall of residence, failing at trying to open your door to the room opposite Sehun’s.

“Hey! y/n!” Sehun calls. You look back to him with a smile – thank God – and beckon for him to come and join you. “Do you need some help?”

Sehun hasn’t seen you since Baekhyun had left to go to university, and although he and Baekhyun saw each other all the time, Baekhyun never actually brought you along with him. But now Baekhyun was in his third year and the two of you ended up going to different universities – mostly because Baekhyun went to one which has a focus on music and you didn’t need a music-based university.

“Uh, I’m probably being stupid but my key won’t work,” you tell Sehun.  He takes the key from you, trying himself to open the door but to no avail – it’s like you two are meant to be stick outside so that Sehun had to invite you in.

Seriously, Sehun has a touch of social and anxiety and it did often impact him. But talking to you had to come easy to him on the three occasion you had seen each other, not including when you met him and Baekhyun. It was strange. “Do you want to come and put your stuff in my room until you can find somewhere to sort out your keys?”

“Would that be okay?” You asked.

Of course Sehun nods. You two might not be close but you’re still Baekhyun’s soulmate so Sehun considers you a friend. Like he considered Krystal Jung friend even if she moved just after Jongin’s death. Plus you might help him find his soulmate one day so he’d be friends with you just in case.

“So, where’s your room?” you ask Sehun. He’d been thinking too much that he’d forgotten completely that you were waiting there for him.

“Oh, sorry,” Sehun tells you. He points over to the door opposite to yours and sheepishly smiles. “Funnily enough, it’s that one over there.”

Sehun catches up with you after sitting you down on his bed and telling you that it was completely fine if you messed up his covers. He learns that your best friend – Luhan, who’s basically an older brother to you – lives nearby and that is why you chose this university. He does slightly zone out after that and starts thinking again about Jongin. Sehun misses the boy that protected him all those years ago; Jongin was someone that he could call his older brother, too. Sehun had to remember to stop by Jongin’s soon and tell him about you – the person that Sehun was sure he was going to latch onto for the next three years of his life.

“Is everything okay, Sehun?” you ask. Sehun curses himself for letting you realise that he had turned his attention somewhere else. He doesn’t want another friendship to turn out like the one he had with Jongdae, and or Chanyeol.

“Sorry, I’m just tired,” Sehun tells you. He debates admitting the real reason, what today is – Baekhyun might have already mentioned something to you about it. He supposes that if you two are going to be friends then he should probably just tell you and get it over with. That would be easiest. “Well, actually… do you know anyone called Kim Jongin?”

You shake your head at Sehun’s question, one he asked just in case he could avoid the heartbreak of having to relive that day. “Nope. Actually, did he go to school with you and Baekhyun? The name seems vaguely familiar.”

“You must be thinking of Kim Jongdae,” Sehun tells you, to which you nod in remembrance. “Jongin was a really good friend of mine. It’s the anniversary of his death today.”

Curse Sehun’s lack of social skills. He doesn’t know what to do when you rush to give your apologies. No, he doesn’t even notice when he has started letting tears fall down his cheeks - the first time he realises is when you place your arms around his shoulders to embrace him. Sehun collapses in your arms. He can’t stop crying and the moment when he thinks he might stop the tears fall harder and faster. He hates himself for crying.

But he doesn’t expect you to sit there and hold him as he cries. He’s never cried around someone else before and it feels…nice. You care about him. The way you so gently stroke your hand through his hair and keep you safe place makes him feel like he has someone who is there for him.

“This doesn’t make you weak,” you tell him. It’s those very words that keep him going for a while. He doesn’t feel like you’re going to laugh at him for his emotions. He thinks that he won’t have to crying to his pillow any more because he has these overwhelming feelings that eat him up inside. He doesn’t feel so weak.

“I’m sorry, (y/n).”

“Why are you apologising?” You ask Sehun, one of your hand moving a little further down his back.

Sehun swallows anxiously, pulling back from you and staring up to you; eyes wide and puffy. He doesn’t know what to say to you, and that sits of the starter, as well as his his lisp. “B-Because I started crying.”

“If you ever need to cry again then call me – I’m just across the hall,” you tell Sehun. He nods once, thankful that you didn’t bring up either of his speech problems. The last time he stuttered around someone other than his eomma was when Chanyeol starting greeting him with ‘a-a-annyeongh-hasey-y-yo’. “No one should cry alone, any time I was upset I called Luhan and he’d bring me over some takeout and with binge watch a new drama.”

“Not Baekhyun?” Sehun asks. He’s read online that soulmates have unending urge to be with each other and talk to each other et cetera. Not that he’d admit he read those gossip columns as well.

“Baekhyun doesn’t know what to do when someone’s crying,” you tell Sehun.

He can’t honestly help the laugh that leaves his lips when you admit Baekhyun’s weakness. Sehun had always look up to his hyung so didn’t imagine he had any weaknesses. But, like with many things Sehun was wrong. “Doesn’t that make him a really crap boyfriend?”

“That’s why I have Luhan. Anything else then I tell Baekhyun,” you answer.

“How did you know that Baekhyun was your soulmate?” Sehun asks you, rather out of the blue. He thinks you might have a different answer because Baekhyun just said ‘he just knew’. But Sehun had no idea what that meant. “I mean, there is another 7 billion people on this planet and you just… knew he was your soulmate?”

You shake your head. “It’s a long story but… Honestly I didn’t. You and Baekhyun both could have been my soulmate, but Baekhyun and I have the same scars. One on our necks and also one on our faces. I just cover it really well, so no one ever sees it. If Baekhyun didn’t have those then… Well, he was pretty persistent in taking me out anyway, so there probably wouldn’t have been a then. But he keeps saying he got this feeling, but I think he’s lying.”     

Sehun does have a quick look around your face for any possible scars but you’re right – you’ve covered the scar really well. Instead, he offers you a sweet smile and tips about his head back to get the hair out of his eyes. “(y/n). Would you help me find my soulmate?”

“Only if you promise to keep me company while we’re staying here,” you return. Sehun nods, obviously, interested in having someone who does actually care about him.

Sehun doesn’t know it yet, but you both keep your promises. Albeit in an unexpected way, but that doesn’t matter in the end. You had Sehun and he had a soulmate.

2027

“Get up!” Sehun hears across the room. He’s been trying to fall asleep and hopefully wake up from this nightmare, but hearing your voice is like the sweetest dream. You’re okay. That’s what he cares about

“Are you okay?” You asks. You were talking to Luhan, since the others were all out cold now. They put up a bit of a fight to what they were given to send them to sleep but it worked in the end. Sehun thinks that he must have been the smartest here since he was the only one who shut up when they were told to. Tao and Kris are finding a higher range to get eyes on the room and Yixing is on standby but there is a fire on the train so he is available if it’s an emergency.”

Luhan sighs. “Does he not remember how dangerous these people are?”

“He’s got to do his job, Luhan. They won’t take well to a ward manager who can’t do his job because his friends are in danger. Kris and Tao will help us. We’ll be fine. Minseok was the last of us they are taking.”

Sehun has to refrain from showing too much emotion. No one talks about Minseok any more, but had assumed you didn’t know who he was since to have you never met. Instead he keeps his head down to listen to the conversation.  

“We don’t know if that was them, (y/n).”

You shake your head in return. “We know it was them. Minseok had a heart of gold, the closest he came to trouble was trying to stop angry cats fighting each other. It was them. They knew he was in Xi’an just like they knew you were in Seoul. They probably knew Yifan was in Daegu all those years.”

Yifan? Sehun hadn’t heard that name before but Kris had been the only one of your friends that group in Daegu. He tries his hardest to think of how this is all connected. How did you know Minseok; the Minseok everyone else thought was just a name to you.

“If we start assuming that then we won’t believe we can escape them.” Luhan is obviously frustrated with your lack of interest in defeating these people. He doesn’t even try to hide it. “Forget them for now. We need to fight them. For Baekhyun, Sehun and the others, if you won’t do it for yourself.”

You mumble something that Sehun doesn’t catch, but soon enough he feels you brushing against his shoulder in attempt to wake him up. Sehun uses the best acting skills he can to try and make it seem like he was asleep the whole time, and he can only assume it works but a polite smile that you get him when he ‘wakes’.

“Sehun, are you okay?” You ask him, voice as soft as the hand that so delicately skims across his cheek in an attempt to keep the atmosphere calm.

In a supposed tired haze, Sehun whines your name like the thousand times he’s done it before when you so begrudgingly woke him up early in the morning. Only difference now was that it was night and this was far from peaceful.

But you don’t answer him, and instead wrap your arms around his shoulders and mumble apologies in his shoulder for everything you’ve done. A sense of nostalgia hits Sehun; he remembers the day you to officially became friends and doesn’t want you to be sorry. He needs you. He wants to have met you.

Sehun thinks that you maybe don’t realise how much you actually mean to him. Well, to you the two of you are just best friends. You tell Sehun anything and it was the same likewise. Only difference was, you actually more than that to him.    

“Are the others okay?” Sehun asks. When they wake up they won’t be best-pleased with Sehun considering he got away scot-free. Especially Dae and Chan.  

“It seems they’ve been given some kind of paralytic drug,” you tell Sehun. He looks up to you with an apologetic glance which you just ignore. “Do you know who brought you here? What they looked like or sounded like it anything?”

Sehun tries to think back. It was all such a daze, to be honest. He just woke up here. The only thing he remembered from when he was back at home was when Baekhyun started shouting and someone, and he went down to check out what was going on downstairs. “It wasn’t the same man who came in here. I never saw their faces but the voices were completely different. One sounded a lot older.”

He watches you and Luhan exchange a glance, Luhan being the next to speak. “That doesn’t prove it was him, (y/n). There was too many of them doctors to say it was him specifically.”

“Who else would come after us superficially? It doesn’t make sense Luhan,” you answer, shaking your head.

“Someone over the radio called him Namsyuk-ssi,” Sehun admits. He’s immediately met with the wide stares of both you and Luhan, neither of your clearly expecting to hear that name. “They said, Namsyuk-ssi, 52 isn’t here, and he said bring the two here, 52 will come.”

Neither you or Luhan dare to move for a moment. No one breaths, no one speaks; it’s like the whole world is still for a moment. Sehun glances at the four others in the room then back at you - there’s more fear evident in your face than he’s ever seen. “We need to go, now. Quickly.”

But deep down, at the bottom of his heart, Sehun knows that it’s already too late.

0338

“Baekhyun’s not here yet?” Sehun asks. He watches you with close eyes and notices the frown on your face. Some part of him wants to apologise for bringing Baekhyun up but it’s too late. You’re disappointed.

“He and Chanyeol are buying homeware,” you tell him, shrugging your shoulders. “Sehun-ah. You said that soulmates always want to see each other. Why does it feel like Baekhyun is avoiding me? And for Chanyeol, too!”

Sehun had quickly opened up to you and confessed his experiences with Park Chanyeol and Kim Jongdae, which changed your opinion on them greatly. Sehun would have loved to take you up on your offer to ‘beat them to a pebble’, but he couldn’t except. He didn’t want you to hate two of Baekhyun’s best friends because of him – even if you believed they were arseholes who should’ve been taught a lesson.

“You called Luhan then?” Sehun asks. He is used to seeing you with Luhan, so much so that he has grown used to greeting both of you, not just you.

But you shake your head and sigh. “Luhan is busy. Plus, this means I get to spend time with my favourite person at this college.”

Sehun was part of the custom to a routine you created, partially. He’d wake up 10 minutes before his lecture, run to it, run back, complain to you about the lecture whilst laying on your bed, sleep until you got back (or, work), spend time with you and Luhan , and then either watch Netflix alone or with with you, depending on how busy Baekhyun was, now he was having to produce 40 tracks a week.  

Your were only friend but Sehun was okay with that. You are pretty good best friend and Luhan seemed to like him. But something Sehun did notice was the protective stance Luhan seem to always have around you.          

For example, Sehun asked you at around 11 PM to come and get some ramyun with him and Luhan said he had to come too just in case anything happened. Bear in mind your Compass was pretty safe, so Sehun could only assume that Luhan was majorly paranoid.

“I’m still your third choice though,” Sehun complains, pouting at you.

“That’s because we spent the entire morning together,” you remind Sehun, pushing at his shoulder slightly. “But I was thinking. Do you want to visit Jongin? I said I’d go with you.”

Sehun pauses for a moment before nodding slowly. He hasn’t been for a while, so now would be a good time to go anyway.

One problem that Sehun had is that he doesn’t want to break down again in front of you because that would be awkward. You’re his friend and Baekhyun’s girlfriend, that’s all. He has no reason to really on you like Baekhyun does - that’s just wrong and selfish.

“Sounds like a plan,” Sehun answers. He takes one look at you and grins, smile radiating through his features. “But since I am your third choice… I think that you should buy dinner on the way home.”

You roll your eyes and simply link your arms with Sehun’s, pulling him forward with you to see him out. “Only because I love you.”

Sehun notes the sinking feeling in his heart at your words. He believed that you loved him in a way like Jongin did, but nothing more. He wonders if he’ll ever sing someone that says it to him and means it,  like when Baekhyun tells you he loves you.

“Have you and Baekhyun…” Sehun cuts himself off, looking down at the ground as he walks beside you. “Have you two, uh, done it?”

You raise an eyebrow. “You mean have we had sex?”

Sehun shyly nods. He finds himself curious, as he always is, into what it’s like to have a soulmate. He thinks that maybe when he finds his soulmate he can stop watching that crappy free porn and get someone with someone. Of course he can find someone without a soulmate but if he ever does find his soulmate that won’t work.  They might not like him after that.

“Baekhyun wants to wait, but don’t tell him you know that. He told Chanyeol we have already because he doesn’t want to lose his credit.”

“But you’ve kissed right?”

“Yeah,” you answer, looking over to Sehun with questioning eyes. “Why do you want to know?”

Sehun, the poor boy who is trying to conceal how worried he is on the inside that he’ll offend you, just shrugs. “What does it feel like?”

“Sehunie, you’ve never been kissed?” You ask him. He shakes his head. “Woah, Sehun, I would never have guessed. Even Baekhyun had kissed someone before me.”

Sehun raises his brow as you both turn the street corner, “did he tell you who it was?”

Seeing you shake our head makes Sehun feel two things – sadness and disappointment. He wishes Baekhyun had been the first to kiss you and he wished he hadn’t waited this long to kiss someone. “What about you? Who was your first kiss?”

“Luhan,”you admit, rather boldly. You wait a moment before continuing, and Sehun knows that you’re thinking about the kiss. “It’s quite funny actually. I told him I wanted to wait before I found my soulmate and he shut me up by kissing me. Told me that there was no guarantee that I’d ever kiss anyone if I did that and told me I needed to experience it.”

Sehun, finding what little confidence he has in himself, suddenly stops and turns to you. “Would you do the same for me?”

“You want me to kiss you?”

The question you ask in response is met with Sehun’s shy nod, one which he knows you’re not expecting. Though you don’t say anything, Sehun has a feeling you’re going to say no. He even hates himself for bringing it up and starts to plan in his own head what he’s going to do so he can apologise. One hundred roses? No, one thousand. He have to buy you lunch everyday for the next forty years.  He’ll have to—

Sehun’s thoughts are erased when he’s pulled towards you with a little force. He scrambles, but his whole body is numb the second that he feels your lips sinking into his.

The skin where your fingers graze over is on fire as your run your hands through his dyed hair, pulling him closer to you in such a conceited way. Sehun moves his hand to your waist, letting his tense body relax into the kiss.

He’s trying to savour the moment, so as you start to pull away Sehun does his very best to claw onto you, but then he remembers that you have a soulmate that doesn’t know how lucky he is to have you.

“Don’t tell Baekhyun, okay? He doesn’t even like that i’m such good friends with you.”

1936

“Sehun, are you okay?” Luhan asks the half conscious boy. His head is spinning but Sehun manages to collect himself. He’s not dead, and he doesn’t believe you are either.

“I’m—” Sehun has to pause so that he isn’t sick, the churning in his stomach becoming too much. He has to be okay; what if you can feel this too? He didn’t want to hurt you. “—fine. What happened?”

Luhan sighs. “Your friends were knocked out by that gas but it seems as though you’re not affected by it. I’m basically immune, too.”

“Why are you immune?” Sehun asks. He wants to distract himself.

“(y/n) hasn’t told…” Luhan stops talking when he catches Sehun’s eyes. Sehun, unaware of what he was missing, shrugs off the act due to the throbbing in his head. “It’s okay. They’ll wake up soon. You’ve so much time around (y/n) that it doesn’t affect you.”

“What about Baekhyun?” Sehun questions.

“What about him?”

“Shouldn’t he be the same as me? I mean? He is (y/n)’s soulmate after all,” Sehun explains. He’s thinking through hints slowly due to the fact his thoughts aren’t fully functional.

“Well I mean…” Luhan cuts himself off again, “Sehun, how long are you going to keep lying to yourself?”

Sehun, now shocked at Luhan’s exclamation, doesn’t know how to answer. He has a feeling it’s about being your soulmate but doesn’t wish to say. What if someone else woke up and heard?

But he does debate telling Luhan in his head for a while, because he doesn’t want to be alone in his secret for too long. What is Sehun never got the courage to tell you? Then Luhan would say it and you might believe him. In fact, he’s seconds away from answering before—

“I’m going to be sick,” Chanyeol says out of the blue. He gets Sehun and Luhan’s attention as he proceeds to lean forward and gag. “What happened?”

Junmyeon is the next to come round, the boy choking as his eyes open to adjust to the bright light around him. He was similar to Chanyeol, he felt sick too.

Then Baekhyun woke up and Sehun faced a reality he wished wasn’t true. Baekhyun looked around, then faced the ground with a look of pain and sighed, “(y/n)-ah?”

“She’s not here,” Luhan answers.

He looks at Sehun and the pair are stuck in a staring match until Chanyeol speaks again. This time, he’s definitely not happy. “Who are these people? Sehun, who are they?”

“Why should I know?” Sehun answers. His friendship with you has encouraged him to stand up to his hyung – especially Chanyeol. The tall, red haired friend of Baekhyun’s was no match for Sehun anymore. “They dragged me here. I was at home with Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun confirms this with a nod. His eyes are suspicious and Sehun assumes that you’ve not told Baekhyun about your past. “We were both at home. I opened the door and those men walking in asking for… (y/n)—! Have you seen her?”

Sehun shakes his head and Luhan follows suit. Personally he wishes to express his concerns for you outside like Baekhyun did but that wouldn’t go down well. Chanyeol, protective of his own best friend, was already weary of how close Sehun was to you. He’d mentioned it a lot in the past when you and Baekhyun weren’t in the room.

“We are here because of (y/n)?” Chanyeol asks. He might have had a problem with Sehun (and you for that matter), but he had to appear nice for Baekhyun’s sake.

Baekhyun was overly protective of you, too. Anyone who dared utter a word about you would get the rough end of the stick from Baekhyun for the rest of his life. He loved you and Sehun understood that. They’d both do anything for you.

“I’m not sure,” Luhan answers. “I didn’t get to see their faces but they were shouting something about Jongdae when they pushed me into their van.

Chanyeol frowns. Sehun can’t seem to recall if the two formally know each other. He’s certain they know of each other but now is the first time they are properly talking. “Jongdae? Why Jongdae?”

“They knocked me out before telling me that part,” Luhan answers.

He’s the eldest in the room and he is also Sehun’s friend. Hopefully meaning that he’d stand up for Sehun. It calms his nerves a little, so he can go back to thinking about you.

At 12:30pm ish you had text him saying you were at the store and Sehun had text back asking you to pick him up some new coffee beans – it was supposed to keep him awake tonight because you both were going to watch a new drama – one with two of your favourite actors (Park Hyungsik and Lee Jisoo).

You’d surely know by now that something was wrong. He hadn’t heard from you since… 1 maybe? Sehun wasn’t sure. Either way he was worried, especially with the involuntary pain in his chest.

No. His heart.

“This has nothing to do with Jongdae!” Chanyeol shouts. He frowns at the pair at the end of the row as he shakes his head. “This is all you! Sehun, you and (y/n)! Bad things always happen around you and it’s only worse with the two of you!”

“Hey!” Both Luhan and Baekhyun come to Sehun’s defence. The combined shout even stirs the last of the group who was seemingly out cold.

“Sehun and (y/n) are nothing to do with this!” Baekhyun says. He’s never truly gotten mad at Chanyeol, Sehun recalls, but there is a first for everything. “Whatever it is, don’t pull them into it! They’re you’re dongsaengs and you treat them like this? Chanyeol, I’m scared too, but don’t act like this.”

Luhan nods in agreement. “This should be about anything or anyone. Bad things happen to everyone. I dare you to say that again, or you’ll be the one who’s cursed.”

Deep down, Sehun knows that they’re just helping you, but he ignores it. He instead focuses on the sound of footsteps coming from a corridor and watches the door so he can get a good look that the person’s face.

He does exactly that when a man walks through the door. Sehun keeps quiet and just watches, vaguely aware of the bickering around him. He needs to escape and make sure you’re okay.

“Quiet!” The man shots. It’s not one Sehun recognises; he is too generic. But he does scream authority, and Sehun isn’t the only one to notice this. “Which if you is Byun Baekhyun?”

Silence.

No one even looks at Baekhyun and the boy himself refuses to speak. Sehun thinks that if the man had called his name, he wouldn’t have said anything either our if fear that you’d get hurt through him getting hurt. Of course, you could get hurt if he didn’t give himself up.

“You have five seconds to come forth or I will kill Park Chanyeol.”

One… this is a true test of friendship.

Two… Chanyeol can’t expect too much from a best friend.

Three… well, to Chanyeol they are more than just friends.

Four… Sehun would do it for you.

“It’s me,” Baekhyun says. He takes a deep breath and she looks to Chanyeol with apologetic eyes. Fear is kissing each of Baekhyun’s limbs.

“You’ll be coming with me,” the man says. He takes a step forward and Baekhyun looks down to the ground with a pounding heart. Chanyeol obviously knows how scared Baekhyun is.

“No—!” Chanyeol shouts. He shifts his body and somehow gets in front of Baekhyun so that the man can’t get to him.

It becomes a mess. Junmyeon end up throwing himself over the two of them, and so does Jongdae. Thus, one guard quickly becomes ten and each boy is being injected with someone. Even Sehun and Luhan, no matter how submissive they are to the men.

So Sehun slowly starts to lose consciousness again, this time realising how secluded he is. Without you, he would be nothing.

0501

“Oh Sehun!” You call. Your voice startled him, and within seconds you’re tumbling through the door with a pout. “I failed my mock test and I want to cuddle.”

Sehun sits up on his bed with concern. He doesn’t like it’s when you’re sad, so he opens his arms to you which fall into effortlessly. He doesn’t even need to talk, he just likes being with you.

He hopes you feel the same. Sehun holds you in his arms and drinks in the smell of you that reminds him of home. Though your head is buried in his chest, you somehow manage to speak very clear words to him. “I love you Oh Sehun.”

Maybe it is hyperbolic, but the way his heart speeds up is unreal. His body is on fire from three simple words. You’re Baekhyun’s soulmate, but those three words mean more to him that much else ever has done, even in just a friendly way. So Sehun has no trouble saying it back. “I love you too.”

“I cancelled my date with a Baekhyun. I need to ask you something since you’ve known him longer than I have.”

Sehun nods, but he’s frowning at your words. You’re his soulmate. You’re meant to know anything and everything about him. “What’s wrong?”

“Has he self harmed before?” You ask.

Sehun, quite obviously, freezes. He was not expecting that. “N-No.”

He was in a panic because of the previous night. Sehun promised himself he would never hurt himself but he was so lonely. He had you but he never really had you. He wanted a soulmate like you.

No, he wanted you.

And the kiss confirmed that.

So he was drunk, you were staying at Baekhyun’s and he lost all self-control by accidentally smashing a bottle of beer in his dorm’s sink. He didn’t mean to at first. His drunk senses didn’t tell him not to pick up the glass shards, but when one cut his arm accidentally it set him off.

“You can’t tell him about this, okay?” You say softly. Sehun watches as you pull up the shorts you’re wearing to show the top of your thigh. Sehun loses his breath as you talk. “It’s not my scar. I think he’s been self harming.”

They could be any string of lines but Sehun remembers what he did with the glass. A line through the middle of every other cut made. It was not a coincidence that Baekhyun did the same. Even the number of cuts was the same. Something was not right.

“When did you notice?” Sehun asks. He is concerned in case Baekhyun is doing something but there is a voice in his head to that tells Sehun this is a different situation altogether.

“This morning. I stayed with him last night and he disappeared for like forty minutes and I think that… Sehun, I don’t know what to do,” you say. There’s pain in your voice but he has to ignore it so he can focus on why you’ve got the same scars as him. “No one should ever be subjected to that, and I want to be there for him. I do, but he hasn’t talked to me about anything so I didn’t know there was a problem. Oh – am I a bad soulmate? Sehun, I need to help him!”

Sehun pulls you back into his arm so you can’t talk any more. He rubs one hand up your back as you start to cry into his chest, a sign of comfort his mind races.

He has to check.

The hand on your back moves up to your neck, Sehun’s fingers sweeping away the hair there so he can see the back of your neck. It’s there; the scar he has is staring him right in the face. Surely it’s not the same. Baekhyun must have a similar one that has a crooked angle and is as thick as a knife like… His own. This was simply impossible. You are Baekhyun’s soulmate, not his.

“It’s okay,” Sehun states. He pulls back and his eyes move straight to your eyebrow. You can see it – a scar from a shaving accident. It is the same as his.  

“I’m going to talk to him tomorrow. He shouldn’t need to suffer alone,” you say softly. Sehun can process anything right now, but subconsciously he’s listening. Sehun, promise me you’re never hurt yourself, okay? If you have a problem then talk to me, or Luhan, he’ll help you. I promise. Please don’t do this.”

Sehun never forgets his promise to you, because he won’t hurt you like that. Moreover, doesn’t want to have to relive the situation again. You’re his soulmate. Sehun is your soulmate. That’s all it comes down to.

And he scared, because he can’t tell you. You’re so happy with Baekhyun that Sehun doesn’t have the balls to say, out right, that you two aren’t soulmates. You two shouldn’t be together.

So he stays at his eomma’s house instead of following you to Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s for the weeks break in the middle of your last semester. His eomma doesn’t question her son’s return but notices there is something wrong when she hears him crying in the middle of the first night he’s there.

“What’s more important, eomma?” Sehun asks. He dries his eyes with the back of his hand but carries on crying anyway. “My happiness all her happiness?”

His eomma knows about Sehun’s best friend called (y/n). She thinks she knows why her son is upset but doesn’t want to instruct him on what he needs to do. “Sometimes it’s okay to be selfish, Sehun-ah.”

Sehun wants to be selfish. He wants you all to himself, but when he’s eomma leaves the room to make him some tea, it dawns on Sehun that he can’t tell you.

Because your happiness is his happiness, and that’s all it comes down to.

So he keeps it quiet on the Monday he is back at his dorm, he meets with a beaming smile and promises that he will never leave you again. That way he knows you’ll be safe forever.

Oh Sehun will keep you safe forever.

If, and it was a big if, Sehun could manage to keep you safe and he would’ve confess all to you and the two of you to be happy together. Baekhyun could move onto finding his own soulmate in the future and Sehun could be happy with you. At least, that is what Sehun desperately hopes for.

“He’s with Chanyeol,” you mumble when Sehun asks where your boyfriend is. He’s hoping that you’re not weirded out by the fact that he’s spending every waking moment with you. “Ya know, sometimes I think that Park Chanyeol might as well be Baekhyun’s soulmate.”

Sehun nods knowingly. You have a point. The two of them are always together. Sehun can even recall the tallest of the friends want him to stay away from Baekhyun when they were younger. Maybe…

“Does Chanyeol still not know who his soulmate is?” Sehun asks inquisitively.

“He says he knows of them but is yet to confess. He says it’s because he’s shy but… I think that Chanyeol either doesn’t know at all or he was rejected by his soulmate. He is too loud to be shy around who he’d call soulmate.”

So Sehun spent the entire night in your dorm laying next to you with a from. Chanyeol could be Baekhyun’s soulmate, and Chanyeol could already know this information. It was completely fucked up, this whole thing. All Chanyeol had to do was confess his love for Baekhyun way back as Sehun wouldn’t have ever been in this situation.    

The only time he can actually fall asleep it’s about 2 AM when you absent-mindedly drape your arm over his chest and snuggle into his arms for warmth. This meant so much more now though; Sehun now had an explanation to his inability to think straight around you.

1841

It’s deadly silent.

Sehun can’t think past whether or not he’s dead yet.

Sehun’s thoughts are blocked by the pain in his head from being shoved in this… cell.

In the distance, he sure he can hear screaming. Like that of a child, a child he knows. Kim Jongin, that is who it sounds like. All that Sehun can do throw himself forward as the contents of his stomach leave his mouth abruptly. This is not real. It’s not.

In his own mind, Sehun knows the end is near for him. For what reason, he can’t get seem to grasp. Nor can he work out where he is. It’s got to be Seoul. He wasn’t asleep long enough for this to be another country, and if this was about what he thought then you have to stay in the same country.  

“Baekhyun!” Chanyeol shouts. Sehun is sure it’s Chanyeol. The voice was too recognisable. “What are you doing! Don't—Don’t touch him! Hey, stay away!”

It goes silent a moment later. There is no movement from anyone and Sehun fears that Chanyeol, or Baekhyun, might have been hurt.

“Why am I here?” Now was Junmyeon’s time to speak. He has a tinge of fear in his voice, but it’s cut off by Jongdae’s scream of terror and an immediate gunshot after.

It’s simply chaos. Sehun can hear the other all falling to the men outside but he can’t bring himself to say anything and help them. Especially not when he meets the pair of eyes opposite to him in the other cell.

Luhan holds a finger to his lips, shaking his head to indicate that Sehun shouldn’t speak for the moment. Luhan looks nervous, but not nearly as nervous as Sehun probably did.

“Where’s (y/n)?” Baekhyun questions. His question is met with an immediate scoff, but Sehun fails to hear the answer as he pictures you in his head.

If he survives whatever this is, he’ll tell you everything. He promises himself.

But at the same time, Sehun believes that he won’t make it past 12am. He calls it intuition. Others call it common sense.

“Jongdae?” Junmyeon calls. He sounds distressed and Sehun is scared. Sehun’s hyung is never scared. “Jongdae, don’t move okay? I’m gonna help. I’m gonna help you.”

Sehun manages to crawl to the edge of his cell, and all he can see is Jongdae unconscious laying against the bars of the cell. Junmyeon must be opposite. Judging by the state of Luhan, all of them must be in a similar state.

But… he’s fine. Sehun’s body aches because he most likely was thrown in here without a care in the world from any of these people. But he’s not hurt like the others. He’s just as uncut as he was this morning.

“Sehun!” Chanyeol calls. Sehun can’t see Chanyeol, but just as he’s about to answer, Luhan shakes his head.

So Sehun stays quiet. He knows to trust Luhan because you do, too. That meant Luhan was good, unlike Chanyeol and his taunting words. Sehun almost wants to hear them again so he can get angry at Chanyeol.

Because, really, Sehun isn’t an angry person. He gets mad but he keeps it inside. He cries out when he’s with you with you or forgets it ever happened. He’d never get mad in real life, and that could be a blessing or a curse.

“Sehun! Answer me if you’re here! Is this one of your games? I swear if it is I’ll kill you! Baekhyun is hurt! You’ve hurt Baekhyun!”

No one sticks up for him. Usually it’s you.

“I’m fine,” Baekhyun says. Sehun can just see his head behind the bars and breaths a sigh of relief. He’s okay, so you’ll be okay too.

“Where the hell are we?” Junmyeon asks.

Luhan swallows loudly. She knows that Luhan can answer the question but doesn’t say anything. You trust him, so Sehun can trust him too.

“I swear to god…” Chanyeol’s fists pound against the bars and it sets off some kind of Hugh pitched alarm that shakes Luhan. Chanyeol doesn’t stop, though. “I’ll kill you! Where are we! Why are we here!”

Sehun realised that he’s happy you’re okay — he only knows you won’t be in pain because he’s not in pain. It’s not like you’ve been shot or anything through him. It’s fine; you’re fine.

He’s guesses that’s what calms him as the boots of soldiers start to sound. They are getting closer but Sehun doesn’t let it get to him.

Soon he can show you how much he loves you.

Soon he’ll be with you.

Soon he’ll confess.

Soon.

0657

You’ve both graduated and Sehun hasn’t told you still.

He’s close to – honestly.

He just needs to find the right moment, which hasn’t come yet. He’d tell you when you next had doubts about Baekhyun but that appeared to be… never.

He’d never seen two more in love.

Overall, that’s the reason that Sehun won’t tell you anything. He doesn’t want to ruin anything. He is… scared you’ll hate him for it. If he breaks you and Baekhyun up then you will never see him in the same way again. He can’t live with that.

Sehun thinks that everything will okay though. He’s going to stay friends with you and he’s going to remain in your company in case you ever need him and when you and Baekhyun start to realise that you’re not true soulmates, he’ll tell you.

Maybe his parents have influence this. They want soulmates. They both prove to Sehun that you didn’t have to be someone’s soulmate to love them. Sehun believes that, even if you weren’t soulmates, he would still love you like this. He can’t imagine a life without you. The past three years have been better than anything he could imagine because you were in it. You were the one that got him through it all.

“Sehun,” you call gently. He’s been staying at his eomma’s house for the past week or two whilst he’s been looking for a house to stay in. Of course he could have shared with you but Baekhyun beat him to that. Baekhyun had asked you the week before you graduated if you would live with him when they kicked you out of your dorms, and of course you said yes.

“Hey,” Sehun greets warmly. He smiles when you approach him and the first thing he does is wrap his arms around your shoulders to embrace you warmly. “I missed you. We’ve barely seen each other.”

You nod in agreement. “It’s been hell. Baekhyun has been trying to move all his stuff in and when Chanyeol found out I was moving in too he threw a massive hissy fit and decided he wasn’t going to live with us anymore.”

“Oh,” Sehun says. He frowns a little but is not surprised. It’s so typical of Chanyeol.

“Yeah. I mean… I guess that’s why I’m here today to see you.”

“Not because you just wanted to see your best friend who helped you survive college?” Sehun asks. “Joking, joking. But like, he won’t live there because you’re there?”

You nod along with what he says. Sehun feels a burning hatred towards Chanyeol, as he’s sure you do too. “Baekhyun tried to tell me it’s because Chanyeol likes personal space but I think it’s me. Honestly? I think he’s a bit jealous.”

Sehun would know why. Chanyeol is in the exact same situation as Sehun is but he expresses everything in a different way. Chanyeol made it obvious he didn’t like you nor did he like your relationship.

He can recall a party back in the second year of college when everyone he was friends with ended up crashing at Baekhyun’s. When you were basically clinging onto Baekhyun because you were that drunk, Chanyeol had called Baekhyun away and left you to fend for yourself. Which of course meant Sehun had to look after you which he didn’t mind, but he’d been frustrated by Chanyeol’s actions.

Sehun remembers that night a little too clearly. You’d told him in the essence of alcohol that you didn’t trust Baekhyun with Chanyeol. Of course you’d never admit this when you were sober because you were too nice of a person to openly tell someone you thought your boyfriend was cheating on you with Chanyeol.

All that Sehun could do was tell you that he wouldn’t cheat on you. It wasn’t a lie, Sehun truly believed that Baekhyun wouldn’t cheat on you unless he was coaxed into doing it. Unlike Chanyeol, Sehun knew where to draw the line. Other than when you kissed him back in his first year of college the two of you had been strictly friends and Sehun was okay with that.

Chanyeol, Sehun thinks, will never be okay with that.

“But I was wondering if you’d move in instead?” You ask Sehun. “You’re friends with both Baekhyun and I. We spoke about it this morning and Baekhyun said it was a good idea if you took the extra room. Then we don’t have to find some randomer who might be a bit weird.”

Sehun’s heart is flipping in his chest because he knows this means he can still be friends with you. He was worried you’d just reject him after college and that would be the end of you two knowing each other. So all he can do is smile widely and tell you an answer which he’d never realise how badly you wanted to hear too. “Of course I will!”

Within a week he’s living with you and Baekhyun, and it’s an arrangement sent from heaven. There was three rooms, one for each of you, despite the fact that you and Baekhyun stayed in the same bed most nights. According to you it was for whenever Luhan came over, so he didn’t need to sleep on the couch.

You had even thrown a housewarming party for everyone that you, Sehun and Baekhyun knew. Luhan, Junmyeon and even Jongdae had showed up to the small gathering to celebrate new found freedom for the three of you. There was also some of your friends that seemed very close to Luhan that came, Sehun couldn’t recall all of their names but they were all from China and one of them went by the English name Kris and lived in Daegu for a period.

Chanyeol, however, did not show up. Baekhyun found out the week later that he’d been off in Japan travelling or something. Though he wasn’t the only one who didn’t show up, Baekhyun had asked you to invite over Minseok too, someone that Sehun hadn’t seen since he had gone to live in China after leaving school.

Sehun had just  assumed that Minseok didn’t want to come, but it was thrown back in his face one of the weekends following the party when he walked downstairs on a Sunday morning to find Baekhyun, alone, sobbing in the kitchen with his head on the counter and hands balled into fists.

“What’s wrong?” Sehun asks as he approaches his hyung. It’s not the right thing to say but Sehun has never seen Baekhyun cry before. He knows what to do when you cry but not when Baekhyun cries. “Baekhyun, it’s okay. Y-You can tell me what happened.”

His eyes are bloodshot and he looks like he’s barely slept. Sehun knew you were still asleep upstairs because he had looked in to check if you were before he came down. A habit he’s picked up, since he always asks you if you want a cup of coffee if you’re already awake.

“I-It’s Minseok.”

“What about him?” Sehun asks. His heart is thumping. He can barely even think of what Baekhyun’s about to say.

Baekhyun doesn’t speak though. He picks up his phone and unlocks it, passing it over to Sehun who waits with a broken heart that’s ready to shatter. What he reads makes his knees weak. He doesn’t think he can take it.

Korean man found dead in abandoned factory in Xi’An

Police were called by teenagers to an abandoned factory in the outskirts of Xi’An today due to reports of a ‘undistinguished smell’ coming from inside the emptied office of the factory which closed over twenty years ago.

At the scene, officers were able to break down the door to the office and discovered the body of a man who witnesses have said lived in the area for almost five years now.

The body was found with slash marks across the shoulders, bruises across the body and a fatal gun shot wound to the stomach, one which is common in financially related crime in the area.  

Police have now identified the male as Kim Minseok, a café owner who moved from Seoul to Xi’An and worked with his friend Huang Zitao, another local male, in the area.

Though details of the suspects have not yet been released, Huang Zitao xiānshēng is said to be the main suspect due to his connection with Kim. Though the pair are said to own ‘Níngjìng’, a café in the heart of Xi’An, Kim is said to be in debt with Huang from previous accounts that police have not yet released details of. This is disputed however, as Huang is said to have an alibi for the night of the murder.

“He’s dead,” Sehun says. It’s a confirmation to himself that this is real. It’s his way of checking reality and it hurts him when he feels tears down his face running cold over a good friend of his.

Kim Minseok is dead. All that runs in Sehun’s mind is thoughts of what Chanyeol has said.

Are you sure you’re not cursed?

Maybe Sehun is cursed. Maybe he’s brought this all on himself. Maybe he’s toxic to the people around him and he can’t help but get people who are around him in trouble.

He thinks he should just leave. Leaving Baekhyun in the kitchen to his own mind, Sehun walks back upstairs and he picks up everything he can to throw into a bag so he can walk out of here and stop hurting the people around him.

But he’s stopped by you. Your arms are around his chest to hold him close because you know he’s crying and even if Sehun can’t bring himself to tell you what the problem is, he sits with you for what feels like hours with his head in your chest so he can be blinded by the world around him. You make him feel better. You make him feel numb to world around him.

You are his world.

0823

“Is he your soulmate or not?”

Sehun remains a quiet as the voice echoes around the room, but so does whoever is being spoken to. There’s just an eery silence that surrounds the entire conversation that isn’t taking place. Is this about him? Are you in the room?

“Answer me,” the voice says again. There’s a slapping sound that makes Sehun cringe and immediately someone cries out in pain, only to be met with a laugh. “Tell me if he is and I’ll stop. Is Byun Baekhyun your soulmate!”

“Yes!” Chanyeol’s voice answers. He sounds frustrated. He sounds annoyed at whatever he’s here for.

Sehun tries to look around without making it obvious to whoever is in the room that he’s awake, and he can’t see anyone else. It’s just him and Chanyeol, he believes, and that makes it even worse. Chanyeol might not even know that Sehun is here, the pair barely paid attention to each other anyway.

But the other male laughs again and it makes Sehun want to throw up. In fact, he almost does. “I suppose you want to see him, correct?”

Chanyeol doesn’t answer.

“I need you to answer me a few questions first, Park Chanyeol. What do you know about Kim Minseok?”

Sehun’s eyes widen in fear. He hasn’t heard that name since the beginning of the year. “We went to school together. He was older than me and I heard he moved to China after leaving school and owned a café. That’s all I know about him.”

“Were you friends?”

“No,” Chanyeol says. It makes Sehun feel nauseous but he can tell that Chanyeol must be scared. Who wouldn’t be in that situation. Though Sehun wouldn’t say the same thing, he knows that others would. “He was just at my school. We didn’t talk. I was friends with Do Kyungsoo.”

There’s even more silence that chills Sehun. The memories of Do Kyungsoo are still thick in his head, as they must be with Baekhyun too. They discovered his body and they were the ones who called for help with him. Sehun would never, ever get over something like that.

Now he’s angry at Chanyeol for using Kyungsoo as a cover up. Whatever this is for, Kyungsoo didn’t need to be brought up in this. It was pointless and it made Sehun angry at Chanyeol yet again. Though he still lays there, still as ever.

“Do Kyungsoo? Well, you and your friends seem to know quiet a few of the people we’re interested in, huh? What did you know about Do Kyungsoo, then?”

Chanyeol hesitates to answer but gives them what they want. “I-I think he was quiet and he usually only spoke with Sehun. Oh Sehun. He was friends with Minseok, too. They were all friends.”

“I think you’re lying.”

Sehun realised that his hands haven’t been tied behind his back. He’s free to move but feels compelled to stay back. If he gets up now and tries to interrupt anything he may get hurt and that means you’ll get hurt, too. He can’t have that. He won’t let you get hurt because of him.

And, really, Chanyeol has caused this mess.

“Do you wonder what will happen if I tell Baekhyun you’re his soulmate? Would he hate you for it? For ruining his relationship with that girl?”

Chanyeol scoffs. “He’d never hate me.”

“Do you know who her soulmate is?” The man asks. Chanyeol doesn’t answer much to Sehun’s appreciation. He stays silent and Sehun is sure he can hear Chanyeol’s leg shaking. He’ll give in. “If you tell me who it is then no harm will come to that soulmate you love so much. He’ll never know you’re his soulmate. He won’t hate you for lying to him.”

Chanyeol’s breathing gets a lot heavier and Sehun’s palms are sweating. That’s it. He’s going to give him up. Whatever happens Sehun has to live knowing that Chanyeol sold him out to these people. Chanyeol’s the reason you’ll get hurt.

“Oh Sehun. Oh Sehun is her soulmate.”

1728

No one has seen Chanyeol in about 4 weeks and Baekhyun is still under the impression he’s in Japan travelling for whatever reason.

Sehun has no reason to not believe this, as do you, until you’re both out shopping for Baekhyun’s birthday present and Sehun sees Chanyeol standing in the the next isle from where you are looking at video games which you’d both come to get for Baekhyun, too for when he had had enough of League of Legends.

So Sehun pulls you down so the isle divider covers the two of you, and before you can speak he holds a hand over your mouth before you can speak. “Chanyeol’s in the next isle.”

The only reason Sehun had seen Chanyeol was because of his overly tall body that was able to look over things in the shop. You, on the other hand, couldn’t see anything at all.

“Chanyeol?” You question. Sehun nods but keeps a hand on your should so you don’t peek your head up and get the two of you caught out. “I thought he was in Japan?”

“Me too,” Sehun answers. The two of you share a look at that is where it all started.

You proceed to follow Chanyeol around for a bit, disguised in only hoodies to cover your faces if he turned around to see if someone was in fact shadowing him. Your joint study of him only took you to a café near to where you all lived, one which you’d been to with Luhan and Sehun before but not Baekhyun.

Sehun was aware of this and he pieced it together before you did. As you were sitting in a booth near to where Chanyeol was, Sehun worked out what he was doing here. Baekhyun didn’t know you knew what this place was so… why would you ever suspect him of being here? It just made sense for the two of them to meet up here.

You realise that Chanyeol is here for that exact reason when Baekhyun drags himself through the door with a pissed off look on his face and body almost entirely covered by black clothes. You probably wouldn’t have recognised him if he wasn’t wearing something you bought him last year.

But they’re both talking loud enough for the two of you to hear and Sehun, in some way, wishes he’d never have brought you up to follow them because now you’re stuck having to listen to Chanyeol drone on about you and Baekhyun and more importantly, you and Baekhyun.

“She’s just not right for you,” Chanyeol says. He’s met with Baekhyun shaking his head but carries on with the same direction anyway. “She’s nice and I’m sure you make her happy but are you sure that she makes you happy?”

“She makes me happier than anyone else ever could, Chanyeol. What is this even about? She’s my soulmate. She loves me and I love her.”

Chanyeol looks down at the table, and in the same moment Sehun looks over to you and catches your look of anger directed at Baekhyun’s friend. “Are you sure you two are soulmates?”

“We have the same scars. I checked them myself.”

“All of them?” Chanyeol asks. Baekhyun nods but it’s clear the answer isn’t enough for Chanyeol. “You even checked the one on your—”

“No, I haven’t asked her to strip so I can check her for scars on her body. What is this, 100 BC?”

Chanyeol shakes his head and looks over to his left side. He knows the truth. Sehun knows the truth. Neither of them dare to say anything though. “You would have noticed when you two had sex.”

“Well…” Baekhyun pauses. He looks over to Chanyeol and Sehun can tell it’s awkward already. Sehun knows this story from you. “We haven't… done anything.”

“She doesn’t want to?”

Baekhyun shakes his head. “I want to wait until we’re married, okay? Is that too much for you to handle? God, Chanyeol, what’s your problem lately? You won’t live with me anymore because (y/n) is there, you left the country without saying anything and now you’re questioning whether I love her?”

“I do it because I care about you, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol says. He sighs and bites down on his lip in frustration. “I don’t want you to get hurt because of her.”

“Why would she hurt me, Park Chanyeol?”

Sehun knows the answer which is on the top of Chanyeol’s tongue. He knows deep down that you know exactly what he’ll say to because it’s obvious really. The reason you have to hurt Baekhyun is…

“Sehun is close to her and… I think that he might…”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes with a scoff. “Sehun’s her friend, Chanyeol. Like you’re my friend. If you think I should be jealous of him and tell them not to be friends then maybe she should tell me that you and I can’t be friends, either? Would you like that? Do you think it’s normal for soulmates to not have friends at all?”

“That’s not what I meant,” Chanyeol counters. He looks disappointed.

“Well don’t bring it up again,” Baekhyun says. He’s not happy and you notice it as soon as he stands up to leave without even saying goodbye to Chanyeol. “I love her more than anything. If you have a problem with that then don’t talk to me anymore, because no matter what happens my feelings towards her won’t change.”

Sehun notices how wide your smile is when you hear his delicately times words, and though he smiles for you he can’t help but wish that hadn’t been said.

0949

Wheels are turning so loudly. Sehun can only hear wheels. They’re spinning. Turning. It hurts him.

“Sehun?” Baekhyun says softly. His hyung is right in his vision when Sehun opens his eyes and it scares him half to death to see a bloody and bruised Baekhyun before him. “Are you okay?”

Sehun nods softly but winces at the pain in his head. It hurts him too much for him to explain. “What happened?”

There’s no answer from Baekhyun because he probably doesn’t know. Sehun feels selfish for asking him when really, they’re in the same boat. They were both just taken from their home for… Fifty two. Whoever that was. Whatever that was.

“Does your head hurt?” Baekhyun asks with care. He presses his fingertips to the corner of Sehun’s head and when he pulls away there’s blood on his fingers that Sehun is quick to notice. He’s worried for himself because if he’s bleeding, you’ll feel the pain.

“I’m fine,” Sehun says. If he can convince himself that he’s fine then he’ll believe that you’re fine, too. “Baekhyun, you’re bleeding. You have to stop or…”

Baekhyun nods as he presses his hand to a small wound on his lower stomach. “I know, (y/n) will feel it. It’s fine. I’ve got it under control. I don’t know who these people are but we’re going to make it through, okay?”

There’s a hesitant nod that Sehun gives but he hopes that Baekhyun sees it as sincere. He’ll pretend to be okay if it means that his hyung won’t give up strength. If anything happens to Baekhyun… you won’t be the same. Soulmate or not, you still loved him.

“If anything happens to me…” Baekhyun stops for a moment and looks over to the side, taking a deep breath as he places his hand down on Sehun’s shoulder as a sign of comfort. “There’s a number in my phone under the contact Yixing.  You call it and tell the person who answers our location, okay?”

Sehun nods. “Our location. Got it.”

“A-And (y/n)… you look after her for me.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you,” Sehun tells Baekhyun. It’s an empty promise but it’s better than nothing. Sehun just does whatever you do when you know he’s anxious about something. “It’s fine, okay. We’re fine.”

Baekhyun shakes his head. “You’re younger than me you know. I’m meant to tell you those things.”

Honestly Sehun doesn’t mind. It calms his mind a little knowing that Baekhyun is freaking because neither them know what’s going to happen tonight. This isn’t a kidnap of any kind. They’re being used as bait. They’re being used to get fifty two here for whatever reason.

Is it wrong for Sehun to think that fifty two might be you?

He doesn’t have much time to think about it. He starts to feel nauseous and despite his grab for Baekhyun to feel like someone is there for him, no one is there. Baekhyun is out cold again, laying on the floor beside him. There’s fear in his mind that something is wrong and it’s not just something little.

He thinks this might be the end of the road.

He’ll fight through it for you. He can feel his eyelids getting heavy but you have to be told his secret yet. You’re yet to be alerted about the fact that he’s your soulmate. He won’t die knowing that you don’t know about it.

Fifty two; fifty two. Didn’t you have that as a tattoo?

1541

Sehun is awkwardly shuffling through Baekhyun’s things one day to try and find his lost watch when he stumbles across a box.

It’s a blue and white box. From Tiffany, he thinks, judging by the amount of times he’s seen you gushing to Luhan about that damn company and their beautiful rings they make for weddings and engagements. Sehun promised himself he’d get you one of those when you were together, no matter what the cost.

But it seemed that Baekhyun beat him to it.

“Baekhyun,” Sehun calls in a rushed voice, “Baekhyun, are you here?”

It takes a moment but the very boy comes walking out of the kitchen which an apple in his hand that he’s taken a few bites of. “What is it?”

“What’s this?”

Baekhyun’s eyes widen when he realises what box Sehun is holding up. “Where did you get that?”

“Never mind where I got it! Are you going to propose to (y/n)?” Sehun questions. His tone makes him seem like he’s completely against it, which in one way he is, but in another he’s not. “Are you!?”

Baekhyun looks worried. Sehun is overreacting because he wanted to propose to you first, not Baekhyun, but also because if you’re engaged then you won’t leave him no matter what. Sehun’s eomma married his father even though they weren’t soulmates.

“Do you think she’ll say no if I ask?” Baekhyun returns. His voice is shaky and it makes Sehun feel bad. You still love Baekhyun. He shouldn’t discourage it.

So Sehun shrugs and lets it go. “I think that it doesn’t matter what I think, to be honest.”

“You’re her best friend, you know if she has any doubts about our relationship,” Baekhyun says nervously. He gulps loudly and it makes Sehun want to be as truthful as he can. He likes seeing the two of you happy.

He can’t see any doubts you’re having. You only ever have good things to say about Baekhyun and your relationship with him because that’s the person you are. You see the good in people, as long as it’s not Chanyeol of course. You have always make everything a positive and even if that puts you at fault sometimes, Sehun loves you for it.

He recalls a few nights ago when Baekhyun was working late and it had just been the two of you here. You’d said to him that you could see your life with Baekhyun and although it hurt, Sehun sat there and listened. To how you’d marry him and have kids with him and even move to Busan with him, or anywhere in Seoul.

Sehun could only hope that one day you felt the same about him. But if you wanted that with Baekhyun then you could have it with Baekhyun.

“I think she would say yes,” Sehun tells Baekhyun honestly. He smiles at his hyung and then looks down to the ground. “She loves you a lot, you know.”

Baekhyun hums. “She has to love me. I’m her soulmate.”

“Even if you weren’t her soulmate, I think she’d love you regardless,” Sehun states.

It’s true because you two aren’t soulmates. You don’t love Baekhyun because of an unearthly bond that you’re expected to follow along with. You love him because you want to love him and Sehun admires that. He knows you won’t love him like that but… you’re made to love him like that.

So no matter what happens he’ll be by your side. Sehun supposes that if you didn’t know that there was a connection between the two of you then you’d have disappeared by now. There was no reason for you to be friends. You had Luhan, you didn’t need Sehun as well.

You and Sehun were stuck together because you were both soulmates.

“Why were you looking at my stuff anyway?” Baekhyun asks inquisitively. He raises an eyebrow at Sehun but the younger knows it’s just playful.

“Oh, I was looking for my watch,” Sehun admits, “the one I let you borrow ages ago. I need if for tomorrow and I was gonna ask but like… I went looking for it and instead found this. So I panicked and… yeah.”

Baekhyun takes another bite out of his apple but then hums as if he remembers something. “The silver one? Yeah, (y/n) has it. She wears it a lot so she can cover up that tattoo she’s got on her wrist.”

1037

Jongin, please watch over me now.

Sehun is praying in his head with his hands clasped together behind his back. He can’t see anything. He only knows there’s a black mesh bag over his head for that exact purpose.

He knows Baekhyun is next to him though because he’d woken up to Baekhyun refusing to answer questions from these men.

“Why don’t we ask this one?” A man calls out. Sehun instinctively turns his head in the direction of the noise but doesn’t say a thing. “Oh Sehun? Is that you?”

Sehun has no instructions from others around him and he assumes he should nod. He doesn’t speak though, which proves to be an okay decision in the end because he isn’t faced with a foot to the face or anything along those lines. He’s okay for now.

“Where’s Baekhyun’s girlfriend?” He asks.

“I don’t know,” Sehun replies. He has to make his answers strategic so he doesn’t get hurt. “She was on the way home from the store because I don’t know which store she went to. I was texting her before I was… I don’t know when she’ll be home.”

Maybe Sehun shouldn’t have given so many details about you. It was ambiguous but they could easily sit here and wait for you to get back here. That would make sense because you were the reason they were here.

Another male clears his throats on Sehun’s other side. “Confirmed. He was texting 52.”

“See, Byun Baekhyun? This is what you should be like,” the original voice says. It startles Sehun a little because he’s closer than Sehun remembers him to be and the space makes Sehun feel delirious. “I have a few more questions for you Oh Sehun. Answer right and I might save your skin.”

Sehun nods and nothing more.

“Do you know where Lu Han is?”

“His address is unknown to me but I know where he works,” Sehun answers. “There’s a restaurant down the road from the council offices. He’s a waiter there. He works every night until ten pm.”

The man hums and Sehun feels relieved that he has given a somewhat right answer. “Would they be together today?”

“No, they’re not together,” Sehun answers. He pauses for a moment and tries to think of everything you’ve said to him recently. It starts his stutter again. “S-She can’t see him today because he started work early. He’s going back to see his family in China so needs to save up money.”

There’s a pause and he thinks it’s because they’re confirming his answer between them. He hopes it’s sufficient enough to avoid a punishment but he doesn’t trust these people enough to think that honestly equals rewards. He should be thankful if he survives this.

“Final question, Oh Sehun. This may be a hard one. Your relationship with 52, what is? Are you her soulmate?”

He can’t be honest.

Sehun doesn’t know what to say so doesn’t say anything. If he says yes then Baekhyun will hate him for lying. If he says no then they’ll hurt him for lying. He’s likely to live if he doesn’t give an answer at all. That way, they’ll need him to be alive. That’s why Sehun theorises as he hears shuffling beside him.

He’s only waiting for the countdown of numbers for them to do something to him. It never comes though. Sehun is waiting and waiting for one of them to shout at him for an answer but they’re all just as quiet as he is.

Perhaps they know the answer already and are sparing him. That sounds stupid. They wouldn’t know and even if they did they wouldn’t spare him now. What was the point of having him here if they did that.

Whatever it is, Sehun won’t remember anyway. He feels a blow to the head, but there’s no words around him.

1402

“Hi Jongin,” Sehun says. He’s talking to a gravestone that gives him more comfort than anything else ever has. “Sorry I haven’t been in a while. I’ve been busy with… my soulmate.”

Sehun can’t help but feel guilt for bringing up the issue of soulmates. Jongin never met his. Well, formally anyway. He and Krystal were friends but they never knew that they were soulmates until that scream when Jongin was hit by that car.

“Sometimes I wonder if… it might have been better if I was hit by that car. You were always the better of us two. You were more charismatic and you had so much potential with your dancing. It just… would have made sense for me to go instead of you. Then Baekhyun and (y/n) wouldn’t have to deal with me in their relationship.”

The wind blows around Sehun in a force that makes him regret his words. It was like Jongin’s way of telling him to shut up. Sehun rethinks it and decides that maybe he shouldn’t have said that because if he had been hit by then you would have been stuck without a soulmate. Baekhyun and you had met because of Sehun anyway.

“Okay, okay. But, like, it’s hard. I hate being here without you. If you were here too then I think that you would have given me the strength to talk to (y/n) and tell her that I’m her real soulmate. She’s pretty, isn’t she? Every time I look at her it’s like watching Aphrodite in real life. I just… why is it so hard to admit my feelings, Jongin?”

There’s no wind now. Sehun is left alone to stare at Jongin’s gravestone which has some fresh flowers on it, probably from his parents. He feels so alone right now. So vulnerable.

“Do you think she’ll accept me if I tell her?” Sehun asks. He finds himself looking up to the sky that’s covered with a dark cloud which loomed since when he left the house. “I mean, that’s what I’m most scared of. Rejection. If she rejects me then I think that I’ll have to leave the country. I won’t know what to do. I’m so in love with her that when he leaves me, if she leaves me, I’ll be nothing. She’s all of me, Jongin. She’s the reason I’m still here.”

It’s not a lie entirely. All the promises he’s made to you ran alongside the fact he was still alive today. But also, you made him want to live. You made him have a reason to wake up every morning. One day you could accept him as your soulmate and that possibility was his driving force.

“I miss you, Kim Jongin.” Sehun finds himself smiling at the light gust of wind around him. “My friend Do Kyungsoo is up there with you. He’s older than you but I hope you’re treating him well regardless. And Kim Minseok, he’s there too. He’s really nice if you haven’t met him yet, maybe you should talk. He’ll watch over you like you watched over me, I promise.”

His emotions get the better of him and a stray tear rolls down his cheeks. Sehun hates crying. “If you see my father, tell him that I love him. I love all of you. I’m sorry if I’m the reason that you’re up there. My curse is horrible. I’m a disaster to everyone.”

This is the same curse that Chanyeol is convinced Sehun has which everyone is so sure he doesn’t have. It doesn’t take much for Sehun to believe he has it too.

What he doesn’t say is that he fears his curse will take him next.

1133

It starts with a text that he sends to you.

Sehun says that he wants you to pick up some coffee beans for him because he hasn’t spoken with you since he laid with you this morning and told you that he needed to speak with you and that he’d tell you something tonight.

Nothing would ever beat the look of fear that you had on your face when he had told you that. It could have been about anything but you always fear the worst. Now that Sehun was thinking back to it he probably could have phrased it a bit better.

But you had asked him what he wanted from the store and he had replied saying that he wanted coffee beans so he could stay awake tonight and tell you a few minutes before midnight. That way, he had all day to prepare for telling you.

He keeps thinking about you and it’s heart breaking for him that most pictures you have in your room, where the two of you had slept last night, was pictures of you and Baekhyun. Near the Han River, in your hometown, with Baekhyun’s cousins – there was so many that Sehun couldn’t count.

But there was some of you and him, too. They were cute ones. Like when you two went to Hong Kong for the weekend because why not and you took pictures on The Peak at night. Sehun cherished those memories like no others. He wouldn’t give them up for the world.

His thoughts are rudely interrupted by someone’s loud banging on the door. Sehun, of course, doesn’t move because he knows Baekhyun is downstairs and will open the door for whoever it is anyway. So instead he continues to flick through the posts on his Instagram feed as he waits for you to text back.

“Fifty two?” Baekhyun’s voice sounds through the house. It startles Sehun a little because Baekhyun’s tone is new to him. “What do you mean fifty two? No, no! They don’t live here?”

Sehun is intrigued by the conversation going on downstairs. He creeps out of bed and avoids all of the loose floorboards he can until he’s made it out into the open and he’s able to make it to the stairs so he can see Baekhyun standing in front of the door.

“We must get 52,” one of the people on the other side of the door says. It startles Baekhyun a little and he immediately turns around and catches Sehun’s eyes like it was his aim all along.

He mouths something.  Sehun can’t work it out at first. Mine? Eye?

Hide.

Sehun does what his hyung tells him and goes straight back to your room. He closes the door too loudly and kicks himself for it because now he could have given himself away. It’s tortuous. He can hear Baekhyun shouting.

Something about leaving her alone, something about leaving in general. It was all a blur to him. Sehun tries to get under your bed in an attempt to conceal himself and luckily he makes it before the boots of what he thinks must be soldiers can be heard. They’re coming for him.

He feels like he’s there for years but in reality he’s been there for only a moment.

“Namsyuk-ssi, 52 isn’t here,” one of them says again. A different one this time with a much huskier voice that scares Sehun a little.

He can hear them outside his door and he knows they’ll come in, so he decides to hold his breath just until he can know they’re inside the room. They don’t take any care in walking into the room either. They knock the door down like it means nothing to them. It probably doesn’t.

There’s a static sound from the men and Sehun realises they’re communicating by radio. He holds his breath again. He can’t mess it up now. He needs to make sure you’re safe. “Bring the two here, 52 will come.”

His phone vibrates against the wooden floor and his world concaves at that moment.

It’s a text from you. He doesn’t read it.

1300

“You know we’re best friends, right?”

You turn to Sehun with furrowed brows but nod anyway. “Yeah?”

Sehun pictures your face when he tells you he loves you and means it. You’ll be ecstatic, he hopes. You’ll love him like he loves you despite the problems it may cause. Baekhyun will know that Chanyeol loves him as more than just a friend too. Everything will be how it’s meant to be.

“It’s best if I tell you everything honestly,” Sehun states, more as a question that he meant for it to be, “isn’t it?”

“What’s the problem, Sehun?” You ask him.

You place a hand on his chest to try and calm him down. You’ve know him long enough to know that when he questions his own words he’s nervous.

And his heart is pounding because it; because of you.

He wants to tell you everything. I’ve been up all night, dreaming about us. About how we met each other and how I knew who you were from when I was a kid. How we’re perfect for each other.

It’s all in his head now and the sooner he can let it out, the better. He has to tell you before it kills him slowly.

Every day he sees you with Baekhyun his heart shatters a little more. That should be him and it’s horrible for him to just sit here and watch you act so comfortable with him. Baekhyun loves you, yes, but there’s nothing like the bond of a soulmate.

If he doesn’t say anything then Chanyeol will and that can’t happen. Sehun would rather you never know that Chanyeol tell Baekhyun and Baekhyun break the news to you. It would be horrifying. It would ruin everything.

He’s going to do this for you.

Because you mean more than anything else to him.

Because everything he does is for you.

Because you are his everything.

Because he loves you.

“I need to tell you something tonight.”


End file.
